Trade Secretary Gregory Domingo is optimistic that the country’s global competitiveness ranking will improve this year, now that the government has finally eased the business registration processes in the country through the Philippine Business Registry (PBR).

According to Domingo, one of the major factors attributed to Philippines’ poor performance in competitiveness surveys was what corporations had deemed as slow and inefficient registration processes.

This was among the more critical considerations that had put the Philippines at 136th place in the Doing Business Survey published by the World Bank-International Finance Corp.

Domingo noted that through the PBR, the government was able to streamline business registration, serving as a one-stop shop for entrepreneurs who need to transact with several agencies to be able to start operating a business.

From what would usually take days, the waiting time for business registration will be cut short to about 30 minutes for at least five permits from the Department of Trade and Industry, Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), Social Security System (SSS), Home Development Mutual Fund (Pag-Ibig), Philippine Health and Insurance Corp (PhilHealth) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

More than easing business registration processes, the PBR will also help curb corruption and eliminate red tape among government offices.

“PBR is very important not only in terms of service to the public but also (as a means to) increase the country’s competitiveness rankings. This is critical to having a good economic growth.” he added.

An added bonus what that the PBR will become a useful source of information about businesses in the country. This information, Domingo said, will be useful in analyzing the industry, the behavior of the small and medium enterprises and other types of corporate information.

Meanwhile, the trade chief also disclosed that the DTI is now focusing on rolling out the PBR to the local government units to ensure that this scheme will benefit a wider range of applicants.

Beginning March 1, PBR will be implemented through the DTI Regional and Provincial Offices and at the SEC Head Office in Mandaluyong City. LGUs such as the Quezon City, Caloocan and Mandaluyong will also start offering PBR services in their city halls.

original source: business.inquirer.net